


Mara's Little Moonstone

by Zarra_Rous



Series: Moonstone [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, BAMF Mara Jade, Baby Ben Solo, Gen, Parents Han and Leia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:40:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25241053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zarra_Rous/pseuds/Zarra_Rous
Summary: Mara Jade meets a young Ben Solo and changes the path of his life forever.
Relationships: Leia Organa & Ben Solo, Leia Organa/Han Solo, Mara Jade & Ben Solo
Series: Moonstone [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1828558
Comments: 4
Kudos: 29
Collections: 2020 Star Wars Summer Fic Exchange





	Mara's Little Moonstone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChamiTheJedi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChamiTheJedi/gifts).



Mara’s Little Moonstone

10 ABY – Hanna City, Chandrila

Opulent. That was the first thought that ran through the head of the former Emperor’s Hand when she saw the Alderaanian Complex in the New Republic’s capital city. But then Mara had always thought that of many of the Inner Core planets. The ultra wealthy worlds that pretended at a complete lack of poverty. The only one she had actually seen uphold the belief in true equality of its people was Alderaan, but they were long gone, made an example by the bastard Tarkin. Good thing he was gone at the hand of the farm boy Jedi wannabe too, or Mara was sure that she would have done the job herself.

But she wasn’t here to reminisce about the past, no matter how satisfying. No, today she was here to meet with the Queen in Exile, Leia Organa. Somehow the Queen’s people had found out about Mara and her past as the Emperor’s top assassin, and now they wanted to make an ally of her. She might just, if the offer was good enough. At the very least, she had immunity from prosecution just for making the meeting. Maybe she could even bargain a few credits out of them while she was at it.

Just as she spotted the white haired woman that she had been told was her guide, she heard a muffled sob coming from underneath a blooming Alderaanian fire flower bush. Pausing, she back stepped several times, while stretching out her senses. She relaxed when she sensed nothing more than a distressed youngling. Raising a hand, she waved her guide to her, before taking a knee. Peering under the bush her green eyes met a pair of dark brown ones framed by a tearful face and dark hair.

“Hello little one. Care to tell me what the problem is?”

The youngling only shook his head and hugged his small blue and gold star cover blanket harder.

“Hmm… how about I tell you my name and you tell me yours.” When he nodded, she smiled. “My name is Mara Jade.”

“I’m Ben Solo.”

“Well Ben Solo, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Looking up to where her guide was now standing she nodded at the other woman. “I do believe that I’m here to meet your mother.”

There was a bit of shuffling, before a tiny child standing no taller than the bottom of Mara’s hip emerged from the flower bush. “You know my mama?”

Standing, she looked down into the dark depths of his caf colored eyes, somehow feeling that he would know if she were lying to him. “Not yet. I’m to be meeting her today.” Glancing up at her guide, she smiled again at the child. “Would you like to escort me little prince?”

“I would.” He looked over at the white haired woman. “Can I go with her Winter? To show her where mama is.”

Glancing between the two of them, Winter nodded. “You may your highness, if you will agree to tell your mother why you were found hiding under the fire flower bushes again.”

“Do I have to?”

Mara chuckled as she held out a hand. “I’m afraid you must little one.” She nearly let out a full laugh when he pouted. “For you have agreed to escort me and if you do not do as she asks, then I am afraid you won’t be able to as you said you would.” She shared a look with Winter. “Plus is it not part of being a prince to keep one’s word?”

Little Ben’s brow creased as he thought about what she said, before a fleeting wince of pain crossed his features. Water started to fill his eyes as he looked up at her pleadingly. Unsure what had caused his sudden change of mood, she crouched down so that she could look him directly in the eyes. Reaching out with the Force, she nearly let herself flinch at the darkness she felt surrounding the child, a darkness she was all too familiar with. Lifting her hands, she placed them on his pale cheeks and pushed lightly through until she could feel the boy’s natural light. “May I help you?”

His voice wavered as he answered, his fear far too obvious. “Please.”

Pressing forward, she entered his mind as gently as she could. With this child she had to be careful, she could feel it. This moment with him was a turning point, and so at the Force’s urging, she took the fragile, barely there walls of the child and built them anew. His new shield would be strong enough to keep even her old master out. She would not allow he whose touch she felt corrupt this child, he was hers now. Her Padawan as the Jedi would call him. She would take him as her student for the Force would allow nothing less of her now that she was here with him. After a long moment she felt the tenuous bond the Emperor had tried to forge with Ben fall apart and break, a new brighter and stronger one forming between her and him in its place.

Pulling back into herself, she watched as his face brightened into a wide smile. “Better?”

Launching himself forward, he wrapped his arms around her neck in a fierce hug. “Thank you! You made the bad man go away.”

Mara lifted the happy child as she stood, perching him on her hip as she motioned for Winter to lead her forward to where her meeting with Queen Leia was to take place. “I will protect you with all that I am my little moonstone.”

It turned out that the queen’s apartment was as austere as the rest of the Complex was opulent. The public rooms were richly appointed, but simple. Plain white couches and armchairs were circled around in the public room in conversation groupings, interspersed with navy blue accent pillows and side tables.. The room was so impersonal that there was little she could see that indicated that the little boy in her arms was ever allowed in this room, not even so much as a personal holo of him. It left her with an odd feeling of something she could almost call disappointment.

Sitting on one of the couches, she rearranged the now sleepy child so that he was curled up in her lap with his head tucked under her chin. Mara smiled softly again as she felt the contentment and happiness that drifted through him. Gently caressing his black hair, she encouraged him to drift further off to sleep, knowing that he did not need to hear her reprimand his mother. Just as little Ben fell into a deeper sleep his mother swept into the room, her white and silver senatorial robes as austere as the rest of the décor, her scruffy looking husband only a few steps behind.

“You must be Mara Jade.”

“I am your majesty. You’ll forgive me if I don’t get up, the little one has only just fallen asleep.” If she hadn’t been watching as closely as she was, she would have missed the flare of apprehension that flitted through the other woman’s eyes. “You’re afraid.”

Leia’s eyes turned to frost. “Of course not. Not of you.”

“But you are of your son.” The shock Mara saw was as she had been expecting. She figured that the Queen-in-Exile was not expecting to be called out quite as bluntly as Mara had done. “You’re so afraid of the Dark, that you are pushing away your own child. He needs to learn not to fear the dark, because if he does not embrace both sides of the Force, then the mistakes of the past will be visited upon him and the rest of the galaxy. He will fall if he is not taught that it is all right to embrace both sides, to be both. It’s a lesson that it took me a long time to learn myself. Let me train him and I promise, he will not fall.”

Solo bristled at her blunt speech, but settled with a disgruntled glare when his wife laid her hand on his arm. “You will ally yourself to us, if I let you train him?” Her voice was thick with her distaste, but it was plain that she was calculating the life of her son and heir against the needs of the New Republic.

Frankly, it sickened Mara to see it. It was a sight she was far to used to as an Emperor’s Hand. He himself had always been more interested in the gains to be had for himself, rather than the cost to the individual that he was using. And it would seem that though she had been raised with all the ideals of Alderaan, Leia Organa had also absorbed some of the Empire’s less sterling traits herself. “My alliance with the New Republic has nothing to do with me training your son. I would ally myself with them regardless, just for the pardon and cost of a new ship. He needs someone to train him, who understands what it is like to have a being as Dark as the Emperor in their minds. He is fortunate that I found him in the garden and was able to break his connection to my former master.”

Queen Leia’s face paled as she sat heavily on the couch across from Mara and Ben. “The Emperor?” Her voice came out in a horror filled whisper.

“Yes.” Mara ran careful fingers through the young boy’s hair. “I will admit that I was just as surprised as you to realize that he is still alive. I thought just as you did that he was gone, especially after I destroyed that one clone of his last year. But, it would seem that he has just moved his consciousness to another one.”

Sitting next to his wife, Solo wrapped an arm around her shoulders as he continued to glare at Mara. “You’re gonna be working for Leia now Jade and I ain’t lettin the Emperor’s Hand outta my sight with my kid. Where he goes, I go. Got it?”

With an inward sense of satisfaction that she did not let touch her face, she nodded. “Understood. Just don’t get in my way Solo, besides I’m not planning on taking him anywhere until he’s old enough.”

“Good.”

Smiling, she had a thought. An old ally of her own might just need the protection that the Alderaanian complex offered himself, now that she had heard that he had a Force sensitive child of his own. “I do wonder though, your majesty, if I might be allowed to bring a friend in on this offer of yours. He’s not one that ever sided with the Empire, loathes it in fact. But he has a foundling child of his own to care for now and I do believe that the child would do well to be raised by your son’s side. They are both Force sensitive after all.”

Turning to her husband, the queen arched an eyebrow and waited for Solo to agree. “Very well. Who is this friend of yours?”

“Din Djarin, also known as the Mandalorian.”

fin


End file.
